Which aspect ratio should we use for Microsoft Teams Room displays?
16:9 or 16:10 or 21:9 or 28:9 or 32:9? Here's how to make the choice.
In practice this falls into two headline choices…
First, for projection, whether to use 16:9 or 16:10 (spoiler alert: 16:9, always).
Second, for Microsoft Front Row, the new screen layout for Teams, as featured in their Signature Meeting Rooms (and also for replacing the end-of-life Cisco telepresence systems). Here - in theory - there are multiple choices: 21:9 or 28:9 or 32:9.
Two of these can be discarded quickly: 28:9 and 32:9.
28:9 was a trial approach to make Front Row better quality by using two blended (overlapping) projector images.
32:9 was an initial aspect ratio shown working by Microsoft. The disadvantages (technical difficulty in using two projectors and the image width creating acute viewing angles for people at the ends of the table) led to a final decision.
So it was great news when Microsoft settled on 21:9 for the Front Row screen layout. Great news because this means we can specify and install these displays with confidence. Great news because it’s the best choice.
I’ve been working with these displays for almost a year now and I can say that 21:9 is the best choice. Future hybrid display use will evolve further, but one fact remains: we need to have multiple content windows on the same screen - at the same time.
But there is another dimension here: image size. Microsoft has addressed the fact that we are now in the era of a step change up in required display size. When we have to apply display size calculations based on the content window within the display - and not the overall size - then 98” flat panels are now only best suited at the smaller end of the room size scale.
In commercial practice - unless your budget is large - these displays can only be made using projection, as Microsoft recommends.
However, this ONLY works in practice, under normal room lighting conditions when using properly specified ALR projection screens (something Visual Displays supplies globally).
Find out more here.
Posted: 18th March 2023